If you Google “Wild Dog Knights” to try to find out more about the young production house in Vancouver of that name, the search won’t get you far. As was the case with creative house W when it first started, its overseas production extension is also a bit of a mystery for the industry. Instead of an official website and media reports, we got to know “Wild Dog Knights” through their work.

Wild Dogs made Xiaomi Mi A3 ad into a bit of a «crime story gone wrong»
带有趣味“警匪故事”的广告片

Since starting in 2019, W’s Vancouver team is going full speed ahead: they executed the new ad for Xiaomi A3 in just one month after receiving a brief, efficiently worked on a Watson’s commercial film in the midst of virus outbreak, and recently pulled off two versions of an ad for Lee, which they completed in less than 2 days.

Both the Chinese and English versions of the ad for the Asia Pacific region start with the same theme, and both are shot in same venues, but have different protagonists, and a slightly different way of delivering the message of “finding your confidence”.“Stand Tall”/我就这一套 introduces an ‘invisible man’ character as a clever move to get closer to consumers.

In the TVC, the “invisible man” is a misfit, but for the consumer the “invisible man” is our own growth process. “At some point everyone has had an experience of being ignored, and also an experience of being seen – through their efforts to find confidence” shares W’s owner Li San Shui.

The ad uses Lee outfits as a secret weapon to finding confidence and becoming visible. But while the English version shows the main protagonist as “Mr.Popular” who helps the “invisible men”, the Chinese TVC features a popular actor Eddie Peng saying he’s just an ordinary person. Instead of shining in the spotlight, the actor disappears into the clothes, and the invisible kid in the class picture, or the guy playing the guitar at basketball court don’t seem like separate characters, but at first are perceived as part of his experience.

This narrative shift perhaps shows the audience a more relatable story of confidence. “Hey, can you see me? No. You should see yourself first, reveal your talents to the world” says Eddie Peng in the end, after saving the invisible men from the fate of being ignored with a piece of Lee clothing. It’s not the same as “Hey, can you see me? I can see myself. This is who I am and I stand tall”, is it?

According to Li San Shui, the biggest challenge during the shooting was the 15-hour time difference between the team in China and Vancouver. Considering that this is not a one-off collaboration, but a sustainable cooperation model, effectively navigating cross-cultural communication and time differences is something Wild Dogs will have to get used to. Aside from the TVC, which in Weibo alone generated 11.2 million views already, as lead agency W was also responsible for Asia-Pacific region core strategy development, Lee Leesures and Cooling series KV.

Co-founded by W and renowned Chinese-born director and producer Hammer, Wild Dog Knights emerged with the hefty goal of defining a new brand service model, injecting fresh elements into advertising, and bringing the ultimate driving force to the industry. W’s Vancouver arm has close ties with film and TV production companies around the world, including Canada’s largest production companies MOP, Untitled, and Bigpictures.

But W’s global expansion plans don’t stop at Vancouver: recently they set up a joint venture branch in Singapore as well. 「W.AI」is future vision-focused company, dedicated to brand big data operation and AI business program development. As for Wild Dog Knights, rumor has it that another case of cross-border creativity is coming in June. Stay tuned!

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